Case II: Athletic favoritism
The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, October 15, 1980-Page 9
Catchy 'Go Blue'melody
was invented rih ere t
The veteran players on the Michigan hockey team will
tell you that it only happens once in a lifetime, and that
anybody can recover from such a beating. So what if you
get all the hair on your body shaved off? After all,
masculinity only counts in the chromosomes.
The hazing of a freshman Wolverine hockey player
who was about to embark on a dream voyage on the Yost
Arena ice, goes far beyond the act of hazing itself. The
jelly and egg stains, the shaved hair, the involuntary
drunkenness ... you can consider that water under the
bridge for now.
Call it what you will-disgusting, degrading,
Alan FangerU
sickening, insane-any adjective of the sort will do. It's
all part of that sometimes-familiar process called
hazing, whereby one is initiated through a rather tor-
turous set of rituals.
If he's willing to pass off the events of Sunday as "part
of the plan," then we cannot belabor the criticism of his
hazing-as unjust. If his primary goal is to play hockey for
Michigan, and to play it with the same men who left him
naked and shivering in near-freezing temperatures, then
he will empty his mind of this horror story and play the
same brand of hockey he has always played.
Or will he? The body recovers, but the mind doesn't
always follow suit. Could he have falshbacks of the in-
cident later in the season? Would it be too far-fetched to
presuppose the possibility of nightmares? Since I've
never gone through a hazing, I'm in no position to
forecast any post-hazing implications. But the first-year
icer appears to have suffered through a far greater
trauma than any of his peers or predecessors.
These hockey players, like the football players seven
months before them, should consider themselves a lucky
group. They took unlimited license to brutalize and
terrorize another human being to the brink of death, yet
they are likely to come away from the incident legally
unscathed. Football players can immerse themselves in
the drug market, but they too, have been granted im-
munity from legal sanctions.
Perhaps we should all join the ranks of Michigan
athletics; in that regard, we could sidestep the law and
get away with it. You don't accomplish much beyond ego
damage if you impose "sanctions" on these people. As a
matter of fact, Don Canham would surprise quite a few
people if he took any "drastic" action, such as suspen-
ding the players.
The players apologize and pledge to cease any further
rites of fear, some initiation, President Shapiro calls the
action "deplorable" and "unacceptable," and the cur-
tain is closed on yet another I'm-above-the-law drama at
the University.
Don Canham is letting it blow by without much more
than a few apologies. The residents of the fourth floor of
Markley's Reeves House are too fearful of "reper-
.cussions" to rush to the defense of their hallmate.
Harold Shapiro looks into the television cameras and
describes the incident as "not serious."
If I were left freezing, stark naked, and helpless for an
hour, I might expect a little more from the University's
powers-that-be.
By BUDDY MOOREHOUSE
On any given Friday night or Satur-
day afternoon during the football
season, high school and college mar-
ching bands from coast to coast can be
heard cheering their teams on by
playing what Michigan fans know as
the "Let's Go, Blue!" cheer.
Although countless bands throughout
the country use the cheer, the thing that
many Michigan fans do not know is that
the crowd-pleasing ditty was written
right on this campus.
And just like Michigan's fight song,
"The Victors," which was written in
1898 by music student Louis Elbel after
watching Michigan beat Chicago 1-0 in
a football game, the "Let's Go, Blue!"
cheer was also composed by a Michigan
music student who was inspired by the
Wolverines.
"IT WAS WRITTEN in the winter of
'75-'76, during hockey season," explains
Joe Carl, the tuba player in the
Michigan band who wrote the cheer.
"We always played little ditties during
the time-outs and we found that the
tuba's sound really echoes through Yost
Arena. We were just fooling around
when we came up with the cheer."
Former Michigan Marching Band
director George Cavender recalled that
the words were added after the cheer
had been played a few times. "After the
tubas played the cheer and hit those
last three notes, I put my fist in the air
and yelled 'Let's Go, Blue',! " said
Cavender. "The crowd caught on to it
right away and it spread like wildfire."
Although it .Might seem to some
Michigan partisans that the cheer has
been a part of home football Saturdays
since the pre-Schembechler era, the
first time the cheer was actually played
at a Michigan football game was on
November 7, 1976 against Purdue. "I
remember it was that game because
they announced my name after we
played the cheer and I stood up and took
a bow," recalls Carl. "It was really
wild."
CAVENDER HAD a premonition
from the start that the cheer was
destined to become a classic. "The first
time Joe played. it, I sensed im-
mediately that it was a hit," said the
former band director. "I asked Al
Ahronheim, my arranger at the time, to
arrange it for the whole marching
band. There's never been a cheer like it
in the history of football."
Carl was not as sure as his teacher
that the cheer would become such a
success. "I was pretty shocked that it
caught on so fast," said Carl, who is
currently a band director in South
Haven, Mich. "I never had any ilea
that it would becomesohbig when I
wrote it."
The widespread success of the cheer
is easy to understand. Any team's
nickname or color can be inserted in
place of 'Blue', making the cheer easily
adaptable to any team who wishes to
use it. Among the more prominent
teams using Carl's brainchild are the
Chicago White Sox, Purdue, Oklahoma
and Pennsylvania, in addition to num-
erous others.
CARL HAS NOT gone. totally
unrewarded for his creation. "Albert
and I had it copyrighted, so every time
it's played on TV, we get a royalty,"
said Carl. "But we're not in it for the
money or anything. We just meant it to
be a cheer for Michigan."
So the next time that your school
spirit is stirred by the chords of "Let's
Go, Blue!" emanating from the band,
remember that you're cheering to a
Michigan original.
Wolverine
stickers
score 4-3
OT triumph
By BARB BARKER
Sophomore Sara Forrestel's goal
one minute into the overtime session
gave Michigan's field hockey team a
hard-fought 4-3 victory over Albion
yesterday at Ferry Field.
The Wolverines held a 3-0 lead with
two minutes gone in the second half, but
then were victimized by a three-goal
Albion scoring drive. Forrestel's score,
with an assist by sophomore Marty
Maugh, enabled the Blue stickers to
raise their season record to 7-4 and halt
a two-game losing streak.
The Michigan offense totally
dominated first half play with goals by
sophomores Maugh and Wendy Clark.
Julie Forrestel scored a third goal off a
penalty corner shot two minutes into
the second half. The Wolverines,
perhaps fatigued by poor weather con-
ditions and confident of victory, played
a poor second half.
Overtime play was characterized by
a strong Blue defense, which succeeded
in holding.its early-one-p'oint overtime
lead.
Despite the Michigan win, Albion
head coach Charlotte Duff was not the.
least bit disappointed in her team's per-
formance. "I am really pleased with
the game we played," she said. "We
really got on our feet with those three
goals in the second half.
"I think that a team, from a school of
our size playing such a good game
against a large school like Michigan
really says a lot about the potential of
our team."
Michigan head coach Candy Zientek
was relieved by the final outcome of
the game. "Well, we finally pulled it
off," she said. "I think going into the
second half, over-confident of our lead,
we underestimated the power of Albion.
The problem was mainly a mental one.
"I think they showed us that we can
never relax no matter how large our
lead. I am pleased we were able to
come back and win like we did."
The stickers will travel to Holland,
Mi., today to play Hope College.
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